


Cryptids of Brooklyn

by alexanderlightweight



Series: Tumblr Prompts [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Amused Magnus Bane, CEO Magnus Bane, Fluff and Humor, Grumpy Alec Lightwood, Humor, Lawyer Alec Lightwood, M/M, Power Couple Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Soft Alec Lightwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 09:28:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20225581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexanderlightweight/pseuds/alexanderlightweight
Summary: For all the rather redundant and overused jokes made about lawyers and sharks, never was such a comparison or joke made concerning Alec Lightwood, as there was one glaring difference between the two ruthless predators.Sharks smiled, Alec Lightwood didn’t.





	Cryptids of Brooklyn

If there was one thing anyone knew about Alec Lightwood -and almost everyone at least knew of him- it was that he was cold, eviscerating and just about the most vicious attorney in New York.

His clients thought of him with an almost alien sense of distant and somewhat terrified adoration. He had little charm to speak of, instead working with blunt facts and ruthlessly twisting words and happenstance to sound as though what he said was the law. 

There were rumors -well hidden ones- that at one point in time, one of his clients had actually decided to plead guilty rather than work with him. No one was sure if that was truth or a myth, but there was little doubt that it could have and probably had happened. 

For all the rather redundant and overused jokes made about lawyers and sharks, never was such a comparison or joke made concerning Alec Lightwood, as there was one glaring difference between the two ruthless predators.

Sharks smiled, Alec Lightwood didn’t. 

-

In the same city, but quite a different world from the one Alec Lightwood resided in, was Magnus Bane. A young man with a brilliant mind and after quite a bit of hard work, a small kingdom made up of a variety of businesses. Magnus was beloved by many, inspiring to all and even those who hated him tended to admire him with the reluctance of someone knowing they were being petty out of jealousy, rather than a justified dislike. 

His most well known and popular business was Pandemonium. A thriving club that was a close distance away from yet another one of Magnus’ enterprises, Edom. An upscale, classy and frankly gorgeous hotel that Magnus was rumored to live in, he didn’t. Magnus Bane instead lived in a very discreet but wonderfully luxurious Brooklyn penthouse that only six people knew the address of. The floor of Edom that he kept reserved for himself was where he had his parties and occasionally, where he stayed when his schedule became a dungeon filled with paperwork manacles designed to entrap him for hours on end.

All in all, the two men had such drastically different careers -not to mention lifestyles- that such a story containing both of them should normally have been titled in such similar fashions as to some of the great classics; _The Two Towers, A Tale of Two Cities, The Road Not Taken_ and such on and so forth. However, the eye of the beholder is often led awry and that is why this written articulation is not so aptly named. Instead, the most fitting name for our tale is more likely to run along the lines of: _Besotted, Ardent Admiration, Disaster Gay and Dad Jokes: A Guide to Accidentally Wooing Your Soulmate._

-

To the world and the masses who thought it their business to know everyone else’s, Alec Lightwood was chronically single the way other people chronically breathed. It was his way of life, he clearly didn’t know any other way to live and no one who knew him -or of him- could fathom it changing. Ever.

Magnus Bane had a very different history. A beautiful tapestry of love gained and lost and set aside that broke many hearts not his own and had many in mourning when he shifted his focus from romantic whimsy to that of business. 

It would be then, quite a surprise to many, to find that not only was the public perception of both gentlemen so vastly erroneous, it in fact bordered on blasphemous. 

No, the fact was that it was providential intervention that Magnus Bane had little to no reason to jaunt about New York’s finest court rooms, as his poor husband’s workplace persona would have quite melted in his presence. For while he could in fact smile, even with that particular trait Alec still did not quite make the parameters to be inferred as a shark. No, Alec Lightwood, or Lightwood-Bane as his legal name happened to be, rather turned into a jellyfish when his husband was nearby. A rather useless but electrified blob all around. 

It was pure happenstance that their paths remained uncrossed in the public eye. Alec being something of a private person, only in the fact that he cared little for others opinions and Magnus far too busy to deal with one more detail. The secrecy of their romance and the obscuration of their marriage were all quite unique and coincidental happenings. 

Their first meeting was during a major power outage that attracted far more attention than they did and which had in fact turned into a first date which quickly became a slippery slope of tender and intimate romance and quite ridiculous gestures. Their engagement was short and, while Alec loved his family dearly and Magnus loved his friends, both agreed that they could do an anniversary party later down the road. This wedding was for them and if they told those they loved, it would be less about Magnus and Alec and more about everyone else knowing better and attempting to take over.

There was a very good reason why Alec’s family didn’t have their address and it was going to stay that way.

Out of all of this, the crux of how they stayed decidedly so under the radar came down to one abstract point of reality. Human infallibility.

It was a struggle for people to comprehend the fact that someone like Magnus Bane even existed on the same plane of reality as someone like Alec Lightwood. Therefore, the idea of them interacting -let alone being acquaintances- was so far outside their realm of understanding that it was concluded to be impossible.

Therefore, a number of people had what they assumed to be rather strange and oddly timed hallucinations, such as: ‘_oh look, there is Magnus Ba-… no. Nope, never mind. That isn’t him. That can’t be him. I’m fairly certain I saw Alec Lightwood with him. This is a delusion. I must be ill.’_ As such, in order to not be buried under vitriol by their online peers for their hallucinations, such sightings were never reported and instead were buried deep in the mental abyss of things one does anything not to think about.

_In other words, Magnus and Alec Lightwood-Bane were the cryptids of Brooklyn. _

-

It would come as no surprise that Magnus knew more people than he didn’t and had more favors owed to him than he himself owed. As it were, he continued to do favors. It left other people quite in his debt, while he himself mostly managed to benefit from it. As it were, he had been doing a long time acquaintance, Luke Garroway, the favor of letting his step-daughter and pseudo-step-son work at his main office. 

It was temporary work that they split between themselves as they were both still in school. It was also a decision that he regretted immediately. 

While his relationship with Alec was carefully contained, the rest of Alec’s family did not seem to share the same ability when it came to their personal lives. A few months after hiring the duo Magnus learned that he had hired what may someday be Alec’s sister. Either by way of Clary’s father marrying Alec’s mother, or because one of Alec’s siblings was besotted with her. 

As Magnus had a firm policy on not mixing business with his personal life, he felt rather disgruntled. It didn’t help that neither of the two were particularly suited for office work and were more inclined to impulsive choices than anything involving well-reasoned decisions. 

The way he found out involved a rather alarming mixture of tea. Both verbal and liquid.

It was a maudlin office day. One that had started far too early and Magnus had been forced to leave a large and beautifully comfortable bed and a delightfully warm and sleep-muddled husband to get ready for a tedious day at work. A quick exercise, a hot shower and a perfected beauty regime had passed in the blink of an eye and yet had been only just long enough for him to enjoy coffee and toast with Alec before he left.

As was the usual go of things, he was one of the very first to arrive. It meant he could look over a few of the other offices, see that things were in place and settle down to make a rather large pot of soothing tea that he would take with him to his office and settle into an armchair as he perused his schedule for the day.

As Magnus adored plants, he’d had his designer include a very active and flourishing plant decor. Which meant that when Clary and Simon both entered the outer office where they worked, the fact that his door was open was obscured by a rather gorgeous and lustrous monstera named Augustus. 

“Alright Fray, spill. How was dinner with your new fam?” Simon said, as usual he was overly loud and unfortunately Magnus could invision his eyebrows dancing as he teased Clary.

“It was really good, mostly good. Great even!” And that was the ever excitable and somewhat self-absorbed Clarissa.

“So why did you text me so many key smashes?” Simon asked and Magnus mentally waged a very small skirmish on whether or not he wanted to get up and shut his door. He was very comfortable where he was and he wanted to finish his tea rather than alert them to his presence. They both had an appalling -he was working on it- lack of office etiquette and had decided he needed to be inundated with questions and that it was their right to barge into his office. 

“Well Maryse,” Clary started and Magnus nearly spilled his tea, “her last name is Trueblood so I thought that was her kids name too. Turns out her kids are Alec, Izzy and Max Lightwood and Jace Herondale.” 

Magnus could hear the way Simon choked at that tidbit. Also, he was going to _strangle_ Lucian. 

“No fucking way, Fray! You’re future bro is Alec Lightwood? Guess you have a new bestie to bail you out of trouble.” Simon teased.

“No, I won’t. Because he’s a complete asshole and emotionless jerk.” Clary exclaimed and Magnus’ grip tightened on his cup. “He didn’t even pretend to smile at me and when I tried asking him about his life he wouldn’t tell me and then when Izzy tried to share stuff, he shut her down every time she started talking about him. And, he said it was because he didn’t trust someone he’d just met to keep it to themselves! The nerve of him.”

Considering the fact that Clary was currently spilling everything to Simon, and had a notoriously bad habit of telling everything to everyone, Magnus couldn’t see why she was so offended. It seemed a rather intelligent choice on his husband’s part.

“Rude,” Simon agreed, “wow. I always thought that maybe he was nicer with his family. So he just doesn’t have a personality?” 

“If a personality can consist of a miserable lump of a human being who is never going to find love or happiness and just enjoys making other people feel terrible, than no. He doesn’t.” 

“Savage. I love it.”

In any other situation, Magnus might have felt indignant on his husband’s behalf. However, Alexander could be quite standoffish and Clarissa’s rather… abrasive need to insert herself into everyone else’s everything would clash with Alec’s indifference to new people. Especially since he knew this was the first time Maryse had seriously dated since her divorce and he remembered Alec coming home from that dinner, miffed on being interrogated by a little girl who had started in on why he was wearing a band on his ring finger. Alec did not like it when people demanded things from him.

Instead, Magnus took a very long sip and decided that he was very much looking forward to whenever Alec’s next surprise visit to the office was.

-

It ended up being a few weeks. Magnus was busy with traveling and Alec had a few very intense and complicated cases. 

It was Magnus’ good fortune that only Clary was working that morning and while he missed the first part of their interaction, he definitely was aware of something amiss when he heard Clary’s voice rise in volume with a, “no, I am not going to check and see if he’s busy. You don’t have an appointment and I don’t care who you are Alec, you can’t just waltz in here and think you can use my connections to Magnus Bane because our parents are dating!”

When Magnus pushed his door open, it was to the sight an indignant Clary standing at her desk with her arms crossed.

“If I wanted an appointment with Magnus I wouldn’t ask _you_,” Alec said and Magnus admired the way his voice dripped with derision and the mocking arch of his eyebrow. 

Deciding to spare them all even more of a headache, Magnus smoothly interjected, “that’s because Alexander never needs an appointment, hello darling.” 

If there was one thing Magnus could be proud of, it was the way Alec’s complete demeanor changed for him. All irritation ebbed away, as smooth as a tide flowing back home to the depths of the ocean. Alec’s face transformed into the tenderest altars of adoration even as Magnus cupped his cheek and was gifted with a kiss to his palm. 

They both ignored Clary’s stuttered shock and Magnus pulled Alec in for a kiss before wrapping an arm around his waist. 

“Ah yes, Clary I think you’ve met my husband before,” Magnus said. At his side, Alec pressed a kiss to his hair and Magnus could feel him shaking with laughter. 

**Author's Note:**

> A fill for a very fun prompt from someone on my [tumblr](https://alexanderlightweight.tumblr.com)
> 
> The dialogue on this gave me so much trouble because it didn't want to be written. This was going to be a no-dialogue story because I had so much fun writing it that I'm not sure I quite kept to the prompt, so therefore to at least try to adhere to the prompt, it had to have dialogue. 
> 
> I wrote a majority of this at around 4am in the morning because my (attempted) sleeping meds did the opposite and I was in a fit of giggles over some of the sentences for about an hour.


End file.
